Rural Texas chemical plant fire extinguished

MRC -- A fire at a rural chemical distribution plant northeast of Houston was extinguished by 4 p.m. CDT (2200 GMT), a county emergency services department said Reuters.

For much of the day, county officials told residents within one mile of Sound Resource Solutions located 61 miles (99 km) northeast of Houston to shelter in homes and businesses as crews sprayed foam to extinguish burning chemicals contained in trucks and buildings at the plant in a rural area near Shepherd, Texas.

Towns near the large black smoke plume rising from the fire also issued shelter-in-place orders for part of the day. Emmitt Eldridge, San Jacinto County emergency management coordinator, said the fire began after a worker operating a forklift noticed chemicals leaking from a container at the plant.

"He then went to lift it up (using the forklift) and the worker then saw there was a fire," Eldridge said. Eldridge said did not know if the fire was already burning before the container was lifted. The forklift operator was injured in the fire and taken to a Houston hospital for treatment of burns, which were described as minor.

"He's going to be home with his family this evening," said Geoff Harfield, owner of Sound Resource Solutions. Officials said about 19 people were working at the facility when the fire began shortly after 8 a.m. All had been accounted for.

Sound Resource Solutions blends, packages and distributes oilfield and other industrial chemicals including sulfuric acid, acetone and petrochemicals like xylene and toluene, according to the company's website. U.S. Highway 59 was closed between Shepherd and Livingston, Texas because of the fire.

Rural Texas communities have been frequent sites of chemical plant explosions and fires. In 2013, 15 people were killed and 160 injured in a fertilizer storage facility explosion in the town of West, Texas. Four towns in east Texas were evacuated when a TPC Group butadiene plant exploded in Port Neches, Texas in 2018.

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MRC -- Thyssenkrupp Uhde, in partnership with DL E&C (formerly Daelim Industrial) and its affiliate (CARBONCO), has been selected by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S (CIP) on behalf of Murchison Hydrogen Renewables Pty Ltd, to deliver a pre-FEED to support the development of the giga-watt-scale Murchison green ammonia project in Kalbarri, Western Australia, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This project will use onshore wind and solar energy for green hydrogen and green ammonia production. The key goal of the pre-FEED is to enhance the technical concept and commence key engineering activities for the ammonia plant. The study will be based on thyssenkrupp Uhde’s dynamic uhde ammonia synthesis technology, which has been specifically developed to tackle the unique challenges of dynamic ammonia production. The company will also provide integration engineering for the full facility. The pre-FEED will also enable Murchison Hydrogen Renewables to advance through the subsequent commercial and regulatory phases of the project.

Dr. Cord Landsmann, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde, said: “With our technologies, we at thyssenkrupp Uhde are making a significant contribution to the green transformation. With our technologies and new partnerships like this one with Murchison Hydrogen Renewables, we are building a sound business case for this groundbreaking green energy project and enabling the sustainable and climate-friendly production of green ammonia.”

Dr. Sang Min Lee, CEO of CARBONCO, said: “We are confident that this partnership for the green ammonia project will further accelerate the global transition to achieve carbon neutrality. We believe that CARBONCO will be a bridge between Western Australia and East Asia, which will play a significant role in the energy transition.”

We remind, Thyssenkrupp Uhde has been engaged by Proman to realize a 2200 tpd ammonia plant in Topolo-bampo, Sinaloa, Mexico. It will be a state-of-the-art facility which optimizes CO2 emissions in the process, said the company.
German financing through Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau underscores the international collaboration and support driving this project. thyssenkrupp Uhde will provide engineering and procurement services in addition to the uhde ammonia technology license and proprietary equipment.

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MRC -- Lummus Technology, a global provider of process technologies and value-driven energy solutions, and Citroniq Chemicals announced that the two companies have signed licensing and engineering agreements for green polypropylene plants in the U.S., said Hydrocrbonprocessing.

The first plant, scheduled for completion in 2027, will produce 400kta of bio-polypropylene and will be first in North America with this production capability.

"This agreement demonstrates the progress we continue to make with Citroniq in establishing the first world-scale sustainable bio-polypropylene production process in North America," said Romain Lemoine, Chief Business Officer of Polymers and Petrochemicals, Lummus Technology. "Combining Lummus' leadership in polypropylene licensing with Citroniq's carbon negative production capabilities will help us meet the growing demand for bio-polypropylene and accelerate the decarbonization of the downstream energy industry."

"Citroniq's four-plant bio-polypropylene licensing agreement with Lummus Technology is a testament of our commitment to bring sustainable plastics at world-class scale to the marketplace," said Mel Badheka, President & Co-Founder of Citroniq Chemicals.

In April 2023, Lummus and Citroniq formed a partnership to develop four green polypropylene plants in North America using Lummus' Verdene™ polypropylene technology suite. The licensing and engineering agreements announced today are for the first of the four plants.

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MRC -- South Korea's GS Caltex has started December-loading spot gasoil discussions via a sales tender that closes on Friday, with volumes nearly similar to those loading in November, three sources close to the matter said Reuters on Thursday.

The private refiner is offering at least four cargoes of gasoil with a sulfur content of 10 parts per million (ppm), one cargo of 50ppm sulfur gasoil and three cargoes of 500ppm sulfur gasoil. All of these cargoes are around 300,000 barrels in size.

The 10ppm sulfur gasoil cargoes are scheduled to load Dec. 14-16, Dec. 20-22, Dec. 25-27, Dec. 27-29, while the 50ppm sulfur gasoil cargo is to load Dec. 8-12. The 500 ppm sulfur gasoil cargoes are supposed to load Dec. 3-5, Dec. 5-7, Dec. 12-14.

The refiner sold at least seven gasoil cargoes loading in November, of which four were 10 ppm sulfur gasoil. GS Caltex typically does not comment on commercial matters.

We remind, GS Caltex has issued a tender again to sell jet fuel and/or 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for end-December loading. The company is looking to sell at least 300,000 barrels of jet fuel or 500 ppm sulphur gasoil or 150,000 barrels each of both oil products via the tender that closes on Dec. 1, the sources said.

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MRC -- Global energy trader Gunvor is exiting fuel oil storage at the PetroSeraya terminal in the Asian oil hub of Singapore, with a Sinopec unit set to take over the space, several market sources told Reuters.

The Geneva-based trader's exit comes after more than a decade of storing fuel oil at the terminal on Pulau Seraya, part of Singapore's Jurong island oil and chemicals hub. Onshore oil storage space in Singapore is limited and is often viewed as a strategic asset for companies and their trading activities.

Gunvor still holds fuel oil storage tanks at the Jurong Port Universal Terminal site although it was not immediately clear if the trading house would renew its lease there, which will likely expire by the end of the year, the sources said.

The company may instead charter tankers to store fuel oil, which provides more flexibility at lower costs, the sources added. A spokesperson for Gunvor Group declined to comment. PetroSeraya and Jurong Port Universal did not respond to requests for comment.

Sinopec Fuel Oil Singapore, a unit of Asia's largest refiner, state-run Sinopec, will gradually take over the fuel oil tanks Gunvor is vacating, which can hold about 600,000 cubic meters of fuel, the sources said. Sinopec Fuel Oil has been expanding its fuel oil cargo and bunker trading volumes this year after receiving a bunker license to sell ship fuel from Singapore's port authority last year.

Sinopec did not respond to a request for comment.Storage fees to lease onshore tanks in Singapore reached S$7 ($5.15) per cubic meter in November for new contracts, about $1 more than floating storage, according to the sources.

We remind, Sinopec said it has signed an equity agreement with Kazakh state-owned oil and gas firm KazMunayGaz for a 30% stake in a planned polyethylene project in Kazakhstan. The project has a design capacity of 1.25 million metric tons per year and is located in western Kazakhstan’s Atryau region, the statement said.

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